Chapter 96 - First Meeting

Jasper wasn't expecting the class to be noisy when they arrived the next morning. The unusual level of activity surprised him. Alex and Scarlet exchanged looks and grinned widely. The girls have been dying to meet the rest of their classmates ever since Elfie's appearance.

"What are you waiting for, Jasper? Let's go! I bet it's going to be a full attendance today," Alex gushed and Jasper shuddered. He wasn't mentally prepared to meet so many people.

The door opened and Elfie beamed. "Guys, meet our new classmates! They are the ones who initiated the project to help the class of misfits study. We should crash the tutoring session later. It's going to be fun!"

Scarlet counted the number of students in class silently and was thrilled to know that there was a full attendance. She couldn't identify some of them but it was possible to make an intelligent guess based on Dany's brief introduction about them on their first day.

Alex, being the social butterfly that she was, dragged her sister and Jasper along to introduce themselves to the small crowd.

"Hello, I'm Alex. This is my sister, Scarlet and my childhood friend, Jasper!"

A very small Chinese girl hopped from her seat and ran towards Scarlet, hugging the girl. "You're Scarlet? I heard so much about you from Mr Wong! You don't know how long I've been waiting to meet you. Are you interested in writing lyrics and forming a band with me?"

Scarlet blinked. The girl had a high pitched voice, braided pigtails and looked younger than them.

"You must be Lin Lin?" she smiled and returned the hug awkwardly with the crutches still under her arms.

"Come, sit down first," a tall boy pulled out an empty chair for Scarlet. "It must be difficult to move around in that. How did you get hurt?"

Alex looked away when she heard that question. She remembered how Scarlet broke her leg and despite the good relationship they now had, the Wile princess still felt guilty over what she'd done. Scarlet smiled politely and just told the young physicist that it was an accident but didn't elaborate any further.

"How about a round of self-introductions?" A Scandinavian girl with blue eyes, brown hair and light freckles suggested. Scarlet eyed her pink braces and thought that they looked pretty.

"You should start first," a bespectacled Chinese boy grinned and pointed at the Scandinavian girl who rolled her eyes and flipped her hair back before smiling at the trio.

"Hi, I'm Jean Dawn, a polyglot who speaks sixteen languages fluently. You're next," she shot back at the bespectacled Chinese boy who pouted. Alex cooed silently and resisted the urge to pinch his cheeks.

"I'm Jun Le, a chess grandmaster but I mostly play for fun. My hobbies are catching Pokemon and fixing jigsaw puzzles."

The tall boy from earlier smiled. "I guess I'm next. My name is Nathan Chia but feel free to call me Nate. I'm fourteen this year and am doing my PhD in quantum physics so you won't see me very often here although you can still contact me online. If you need help in Math or physics, I'm your go-to guy."

"Don't listen to him," a boy with messy curly hair told them. "I'm Farid and I am also good at Math and Physics. I like to fix and build things so you can come to me instead."

Jasper grinned. "What a coincidence! I also know of someone who loves helping others fix things. You should talk to him."

A tall girl cleared her throat and smiled. "Before you guys get too carried away about geeky things, let us girls introduce ourselves, alright? I'm Rebecca Wee and I love horses. I'm currently training hard for the Youth Olympics in the equestrian category next year so you won't see me in class often but feel free to look for me at the racing ranch!"

The last ones to introduce themselves were the identical twin sisters. "Hello! We're Ria and Camilia Lopez and we love to dance! Nice to meet you, Alex, Scarlet and Jasper!"

Elfie smiled. "Last but not least, I'm Elfie but you already know me from two days ago. I've been telling everyone about the competition for the mid-year examinations and we want to be part of it too."

Jasper was taken aback. "How are we going to take part in it? You do realise that it's the delinquent class we're talking about. It's cheating if we form a team with them. Some of us here are only average academically while some of us are pursuing PhDs."

Nathan grinned. "Don't worry, we will not be adding our scores average into it. Let's make it a competition about who can be the best mentors for the Entrepreneur's Circle. I don't think Danny would discourage it as long as we keep up with our mid-term examination preparations."

Jasper thought about it. "Doesn't sound like a bad idea but what would you benefit from doing this? I don't think anyone here is short on cash... the grand prize is going to only be twenty dollars per person."

Elfie clicked his tongue. "Jasper, you don't understand. The class only gets to meet up once every half a year. This is a good time for us to make good school memories! Who cares about the cash prize? We're here to have fun! The three of you are new so you don't know the tradition. However, it's important for the Special Class to always get together and do class bonding activities when we meet up."

Scarlet felt excited at the idea of having everyone work together to help the delinquents improve. As of yesterday, even the elusive Jin Si-Han has returned to class for the competition. Everyone was fired up and with their new classmates, the writer was almost giddy from excitement at how this would play out.

"Before you troublesome kids can plot mischief, I will have to remind you that as your official teacher-in-charge, there are rules to abide by and proper approval channels to go through for such things."

Everyone turned around to see the counsellor standing by the window, listening to their discussion. He didn't look too pleased but he wasn't annoyed either. If anything, Alex thought the man looked amused and somewhat pleased.

"Pack your bags, all of you. We're going to pay the trouble children a visit."

Eager and excited, the children packed up in record time with Rebecca and Nathan offering to help Scarlet with her bag and books. Jasper found himself not knowing what to do now that there were others caring for Scarlet.

They lined up outside of the class in twos and Lin Lin stuck to Scarlet like glue whenever she could. The violinist was incredibly attached to the writer for some reason and Scarlet didn't find herself disliking it. It was adorable and the writer felt as if she suddenly picked up an adorable younger sister.

"Alright, boys and girls. First stop, the principal's office!"

They baulked at Danny's announcement as the counsellor skipped down the stairs happily and hollered for them to follow him.

The two oldest children of the special class, Jean and Nathan exchanged unsure looks.

"Don't worry, trust Danny. He knows what he is doing even if he can be a little weird at times," Elfie assured them and led the way.

With no better options, the special class made their way to the principal's office with mixed feelings.